PM Erdogan Happy About Turkey-Syria Tensions: Turkish Journalist

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is happy about the rising tensions between his country and Syria, as he seeks to have a war waged against Turkey’s crisis-hit Arab neighbor, a Turkish journalist tells Press TV.

“The tension is higher and higher mainly in the area of common frontier between Turkey and Syria, more or less between Hatay and Mardin. So, nobody is really happy about that in Turkey, apart from Prime Minister Erdogan,” Turkish journalist Ragheb Toran said in an interview with Press TV on Saturday.

Toran stressed that tensions between Ankara and Damascus heightened over the past months after the Turkish government began supporting the foreign-backed insurgents in Syria.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s plan to ground the Syrian-bound aircraft also fanned the flames of tension between the two neighboring countries as Erdogan claimed that the intercepted passenger plane was carrying arms from Moscow to Damascus, the Turkish journalist said.

“The Russians were already publicly and officially explaining that these were some technical pieces, electronic pieces… Now, the Turkish prime minister is insisting that this is a war material,” Toran also said.

Toran also referred to the opposition of the Turkish people to their government’s warmongering against Syria.

On October 20, several Turkish unions and syndicates staged demonstrations against Erdogan’s anti-Syria policies in cities across the country, accusing the Prime Minister of being an agent of America and calling for an end to his meddling policies in the Arab country.

Syria has been the scene of unrest since March 2011.

Damascus accused Turkey, together with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, of backing a deadly insurgency that has claimed the lives of many Syrians, including large numbers of security and army personnel.